Help thinning out daffodils in tree roots.

Question

I have copious amounts of beautiful daffodils that were here when I bought my house. I know they need to be thinned out because they are not flowering as well as they used to. However, they are embedded in the tree roots and I cannot get them up with any kind of shovel. What would be the best way to just thin them out without worrying about transplanting bulbs?

Answer 1

Try soaking the soil to a point of muddy wet. Use a hand-held rounded, not pointed, garden trowel. Go one by one at trying to loosen and lift the bulb out of the soil. Get a grip on the above ground foliage as best you can. Insert the trowel alongside of where you think the bulb lays, slowly and carefully sensing what you encounter underground. If you hit a hard object that may be a root, stop and try from the other side, or abandon that one and move on to one with no root obstacle.

That's if you are trying to save the bulb and relocate. If you only care about thinnning, then just slice off the foliar tops as they come up and leave the ones and the spacing that you want to remain.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/bulbs/daffodil/dividing-daffodil-bulbs.htm